ShayLynn's Blog

Wants vs Must Haves

ShayLynn — Thu, 08 May 2008 20:50:00 GMT

The house hunting has commenced (online at least) and let me tell you... its quite depressing. I guess what I really need to do is make a list not only of the places I would be open to living in (location-wise) but more so what I would like in a house vs. what I have to have.

Necessities

3 bedrooms (or more) - master bed, office, guest/baby room
1.5 bathrooms (or more) - sharing a bathroom with 2 people trying to get ready at the same time in the morning SUCKS
Central AC - this is for DH, and also bc last summer my electric bill was almost $400 from running our little wall unit to death
Small backyard area - for the dogs to run around and so we can finally have a BBQ and grill outside
Laundry facilities in my ACTUAL house

Wants

4th bedroom - to expand so i could either have a craft room or another child's room
Man cave aka basement - or area we could make the guy's hang out space/game room
Walk in closet in master bedroom
Bathroom in master bedroom
Formal dining room - believe it or not i found a really cute house, but it only had an eat-in kitchen
Good school district - as this is a starter house, i'm hoping by the time our future kids are school age, maybe we'll be better off financially that we can move to a bigger/nicer house?

I guess so far this is it for my list of wants vs must haves... i dont think i'm being too snotty about it, do you? when i had mentioned to DH a while back that i wouldn't even look at a house with less than 3 bedrooms he called me a spoiled brat. I honestly didn't mean it that way. I know LOTS of people that have 2 bedroom places and yes, i understand that IF that's all we can afford then so be it. BUT, i had ALREADY found houses that had 3 bedrooms in our price range, so i know its possible. i guess bottom line is that i just feel like if we're going to be investing so much time, money, energy into a house, i want it as close as we can to something we won't outgrow right away, something we can grow our family in and something i will look back and be very happy with our purchase.

Stay tuned to see what we actually end up in!

Ack, I keeling over from the excitement!!! Or am I just delirious??

ShayLynn — Wed, 07 May 2008 15:24:00 GMT

Yup, you guessed it! Our counter offer was accepted!!!!

The news came in late last night. i was dancing around the store like a fool! So thank you thank you thank you for all your prayers for us!!! Yesterday was a GREAT day!!!

I will blog more later, totally swamped at work today. Although on a high like no other. will have to start house hunting ASAP!

On a side note, worked at the store til 1:30am last night... more about that later --- but that's why i might be delirious today! hee hee! :)

Short Tidbits for the Day

ShayLynn — Tue, 06 May 2008 18:06:00 GMT

Super busy at work here today so i'll update you on what I can...

1. GOOD no GREAT NEWS - We got the CO (certificate of occupancy aka stupid piece of paper that says we are legally allowed to operate) for the business!!! We are officially OPEN now! As I've said, almost 2 years in the making, i can't wait til our first customers start rolling in! Thank you thank you God...

2. STINKY NEWS - (literally) the bathrooms at work are broken... possibly for 3-4 more days. This started yesterday after someone clogged it by flushing feminine products down the toilet (rolling my eyes over here!!!)... ever since then we have to go outside, cross the street to the next building to use their restrooms. at least its nice weather out... the downside is that our entire office smells like an airplane bathroom/porta potty/sewer...

3. NEUTRAL/WAITING WITH BAITED BREATH NEWS - no word back on our counter offer to our potential buyers counter offer yet... its going on 2 days, is this normal? so i'm still trying to have hope it will still go thru... keeping a positive attitude is all i can do, trusting God will lead us to this if its the right time... but praying it is the right time.

Despite the gamut of emotions, it is a BEAUTIFUL sunny day, 75 degrees... my window is open... got a nice healthy salad for lunch... i am in a fantastic mood and am going to remain thinking positive thoughts!

Need Lots of Prayers Today!

ShayLynn — Mon, 05 May 2008 13:11:00 GMT

We got an offer on the condo yesterday!!! It was MUCH lower than we wanted, so we countered, then they countered and we countered once more... if they accept, it will be right where we want to be, and then we'll be faced with some big decisions, but at least we'll be coming out of the gray area i felt like we've been stuck in. i'm hoping PRAYING they accept... so please please send lots of prayers our way... i'll let you know if i hear anything later today!

Also, DH is supposed to get his CO (certificate of occupancy) for the store today. if this happens, we will officially be OPEN for business... almost 2 years in the making, this will be a HUGE relief to finally have some paying customers...

Stuck in a gray area...

ShayLynn — Fri, 02 May 2008 17:28:00 GMT

I am officially boring today... I have nothing new to report on in my life. I am stuck in this gray area that prevents me from both moving forward or going back. This applies to my job (although I am content with this), hubby's new business, the selling of the condo, the buying of a future house and possible plans for TTC.

In waiting for this time of being stuck in gray to pass, i have been thinking a lot about how different my life could have, would have been had i taken different paths...

For example, what if i hadn't become a designer... i've always loved animals, and for a while thought about becoming a vet. or what if i had continued with dance, gymnastics, karate, piano lessons... would i be a superstar in that area? or what if i was never adopted? i would be living in korea doing who even knows what? what if i never had that fight with j, i would have never hooked up with rob and subsequently married him... who would i be with? what if i had stayed with x, y, or z ex-boyfriends years ago? would i have had children by now?

I guess when it comes down to it, i truly believe that everything happens for a reason. i think God does have a master plan for us all, and although i sometimes lose faith in Him when things aren't going the way i think they should be, i just need to relax and maybe take time to try to enjoy being in this gray area... who knows maybe if i stop and look around long enough i might appreciate the break from the furious pace of life. maybe the famous phrase of its about the journey, not the destination has some truth to it?

Getting Over the Hump...

ShayLynn — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 17:39:00 GMT

This week has sort of passed by in a fog for me so far... mainly because I am so tired... I have in essence been working 2 jobs in helping DH with his store. Luckily tomorrow his workers start so this should hopefully ease up by next week.

This week though is definitely taking a toll on me... add to that being busy at work (although, how busy can i be that im sitting here blogging) and having another jam packed weekend coming up, i think i'd just like to close my eyes and wake up to next week instead...

Where's my adam sandler CLICK remote... i'd like to skip ahead to the part of my life, where we have the house, we're on the verge of getting PG and DH's business is successful... maybe then i can press pause and take some time to stop and smell the roses...

Random Thoughts for a Random Monday

ShayLynn — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 16:47:00 GMT

I have a lot to blog about today so i'll give you the quick recap by highlighting the important/random/funny/weird topics of the weekend...

I Want to be the next American Idol (Friday)

Went to my cousin's house for her bday the other night... apparently some time ago, I had told them that if i ever had to sing karaoke, i would sing the song Black Velvet by Alanna Myles (for the record, i still do NOT remember saying this). Well, I got my chance on Friday, where my off key, off pitched voice still was able to conquer American Idol (on the wii of course)... get ready simon, here i come!

Colors, Fabrics and Jeans! oh my! (Saturday)

Went out to lunch with the girls saturday, which afterwards i was supposed to go home because i dont have any cashola to spend at the mall. I only wanted to stop and get a small gift for the aforementioned cousin... I stepped into the store and looked around. Colors, fabrics, and jeans, OH MY! i was dorothy and this was my Oz... my black and white world just got tossed and turned and landed in forever 21. Apparently, they just built this fabulous 2-floor Forever 21 in Garden State Plaza. Not sure how many ladies are familiar with this brand, but you can get some great stuff for some great prices. So, even though I'm not supposed to be shopping, I did pick up a few cute things for my spring wardrobe. 8 items for $106... and all super cute and i can wear all but 2 to work. dual purpose. yes, i am justifying and rationalizing. do not make me leave oz. i like it here. :)

Barney Rules (Saturday night)

Rob was at the store until late, so i spent my entire night watching Season 1 of How I Met Your Mother on DVD. If you haven't seen this show, i highly recommend it. Mostly for Neil Patrick Harris. Here is my favorite line to-date that he's said...

"It will be legend-wait for it... and I hope you're not lactose intolerant because the second half of that word is dairy!"

Barney also blogs, we blog... what's not to like... :P

Another One Bites the Dust (Sunday morning)

Did a 5-mile walk for March of Dimes on Sunday and it went great. however, found this a bit weird/funny. we park get out of the car, are walking to the gathering area, there's a dj playing. that's all fine and dandy... our team is for my friend S and her hubby who lost their baby girl at 17 days... and the song the DJ is playing, is Another One Bites The Dust.... hmmmmm.... just seemed not very appropriate for the event... LOL

A Burned Thumb (Sunday night)

I was at DH's store last night... he needed help with the mountains of clothes he now gets to dry clean... i got to work at the ironing table pressing a few suits... I have the process down pat after a jacket or two. When you put the jacket on the table, you blow air into it from the table, then you steam iron the top of it very lightly. This gets the wrinkles out very effectively and OUCH! i just burned myself on the d*mn steam... i won't bore you with anymore details, but let's just say it happened about 8 more times til i looked at my watch and realized it was 11pm and i needed to go home to my bed because my thumb was throbbing. Moral of the story: Ironing sucks. and im not quitting MY day job!

My New Favorite Snack (today)

Reeses' Peanut Butter Cups... but only the mini ones... i got the regular sized ones last week, definitely not as good. the mini's have the perfect combo of pb and chocolate. This has been surprising me, as I am the last person to really like sweets. I'd rather have a potato chip anyday, until now... weird??? do people's tastebuds change over time?

"OK" is a good thing

ShayLynn — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 19:37:00 GMT

Last night I went to see my good friend J and her new precious bundle of joy... and let me tell you, being around them makes me want a baby more than ever! I think its safe to say that i've had BOTB for a while now, but holding lil peanut in my arms, feeding him, burping him, made me want to become a mom that much more...

While I know that we're not ready to start our own family this minute, i did bring up the fact that i have had babies on the brain to DH last weekend... and to my surprise, he didnt freak out about it. He just said, "do you think you're ready?" and i said, "yes, i do. i know we have to find a house and you need to open the store first, but as soon as we do that, i want to start trying" and he said, "ok". That was it, just OK... in a nice calm, i agree-wth-you kind of voice. So, he could just be placating me, but then again maybe he truly IS ok with it... I'm going to say that "OK" is a good thing.

I guess i'll bring it up again once we start with the house hunting again, since i want to find something with enough room to grow our family in... i can be patient even though everything inside me screams, "now now now!" But, for now, i'll just be happy knowing that he seems ok with my train of thought regarding our future family.